


Chaotic Little Thing

by Evie_adams273



Category: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Aftermath, Alternate Universe, Blood, Cursed Child AU, Gen, Harry Potter - Freeform, Hatred, Hope, No windows, Prison, Short, Suicide, Waiting, delphi diggory - Freeform, i've never written something like this before, new perspective, one minor change, pretty much compliant, the bag changes everything, there's a bag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:40:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23069380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evie_adams273/pseuds/Evie_adams273
Summary: Delphi brought her bag to the fight in Godric's Hollow, and it changes everything. Suddenly, the whole world is different. All because of one little thing and one little question.
Relationships: Delphi & Harry Potter
Kudos: 24





	Chaotic Little Thing

**Author's Note:**

> Major trigger warning: death and suicide

Harry opened the cell door, his wand slightly raised. Despite knowing that Delphi had no way to attack him, he couldn’t help but feel a slight bit scared. This woman had come so close to killing him, killing his son. He highly doubted she would miss another opportunity to do so.

Albus had further confided a little of what had happened. At a distance. He wouldn’t get close to anyone now. No one except Scorpius.

This time, however, Delphi didn’t seem to be a threat. She was sat in the centre of the cell, talking to herself and tapping her fingers quietly. She didn’t react to the sound of the cell door. She didn’t even give the impression that she knew someone was behind her until Harry coughed slightly. 

“Good morning.”

“It’s evening.”

“Apologies. My body clock is slightly off. What with the lack of a window. Did you know candles are not the same as the sun?”

“We took precautions.”

“I know. How long have I been here?”

“Four days.”

“And you haven’t sent anyone to force information out of me?” Delphi started to turn and look at him. “You’re getting slow.”

“How would you know what is and isn’t slow?”

“I did my research. Like I said, I know you better than my father did.”

Harry didn’t answer. He just watched Delphi and tried to make some sort of sense of her. There was very little sense to the childlike enigma on the floor in front of him. Because she did seem almost childlike.

Her adoration of Voldemort had been wide-eyed and humble and full of a need to follow and support. When they had caught her, she had reverted to what Harry recognised to sometimes be his own behaviour – becoming a child to protect oneself. She had been genuinely scared when they had caught her. It hadn’t mattered at the time, because the memory of diving across the Church to save his son’s life was still fresh in his mind.

But now, now he looked at her from a distance. And she still seemed childlike. A smart child. A child who knew more than they let on. But still a wide-eyed child, nonetheless.

Harry didn’t have much sympathy towards her, but he understood. He understood the temptation of power when in a situation where you are always the victim. He understood the need to prove yourself. He understood Delphi, to some extent.

But none of that changed the fact that she had tortured and killed and traumatised children. None of it changed the fact that she was a monster. It didn’t matter how the monster formed.

Harry pocketed his wand. He needed to be somewhere in the realm of calm for her to comply with this. He had to be peaceful. This could be peaceful.

“We have your bag,” he said quietly. 

“I know. You took it from me when we arrived.”

“There were some things inside–”

“Lipstick. Contour. A little note from one person who used to give a damn about me.”

“And this,” Harry pulled a small vial from his pocket.

They had found it at the bottom of the bag, but opening it hadn’t been an advisable idea. No one knew what it contained. No one knew what could happen.

Delphi turned to glance at it, and her eyes practically lit up. Harry started to pocket it again as she pulled herself to her feet.

“What is it?” he asked.

“It’s mine,” Delphi snapped, venom creeping into her voice. “Give it to me.”

“Is it dangerous?”

“Not necessarily.”

“Why do you want it?”

“To use it?”

Harry stepped back as Delphi lunged towards him, her eyes starting to turn somewhat feral. She clawed at it, and Harry pulled out his wand, forcing her back.

“What is it?” he growled. 

“Give it to me.”

“Answer my question.”

“It’s my way out!” Delphi screeched. “Give it to me.”

Harry waved his wand, forcing Delphi back and securing her to the only solid thing in the room. For a moment, she looked as if she was going to try and rip the ropes off, but then she stopped, starting to cackle.

“Scared, Potter?”

“Should I be?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you give it to me and find out?”

Harry paused. “Do you know what it does?”

“Of course I do. I just don’t know whether it would scare you.”

Harry didn’t move. No matter his past decisions, he wasn’t actually stupid. He wasn’t going to give a woman this dangerous a possible means of blowing a hole in the building. She grinned at him, and then rolled her eyes again, crossing her legs.

“Why don’t you put up shield charms?” she suggested. “Seal me in. Make sure I have no way of escaping.”

“You favour wandless magic.”

“True, but I won’t be particularly good at it right now. Ask the guards. I haven’t eaten in four days.”

Harry had to believe that. She already looked visible paler than she had when he had last seen her. He waved his wand, vanishing the ropes around her wrists, and pocketed it again. She smiled at him, with a sort of haunting menace. He would have been scared, but the haunt almost seemed to be in her own eyes.

“If you tell me what this is,” Harry sighed, “I could consider giving it to you.”

“How can you be sure I won’t lie?”

“I’ll see what you say and make a decision from there.”

Delphi rolled her eyes, before stopping and nodding slowly. “It’s something good. For the both of us.”

Harry raised his eyebrows, moving to pocket the vial. Something aggressive, something almost crazed, flashed through Delphi’s eyes for a split-second, before she just launched herself at him.

Despite being significantly smaller than him, she knocked him back a few steps, catching him off-guard for long enough to grab his wrist and stop him reaching his wand. He thrashed around, shouting for help, but he couldn’t throw her off.

The world felt like chaos; isolated, surreal chaos. Delphi kept clawing at something, kicking and screaming at him. Until she just stopped, practically appearing on the other side of the cell. Harry reached for his wand, which was still in his pocket. Surprisingly.

He raised it as he saw Delphi open the vial and pour the liquid down her throat.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Except nothing happened. Delphi dropped the vial, smiling softly as she sat down on the bed. She placed her hand on her stomach, her shoulders shaking as she breathed in.

“Thank you,” she murmured. “Thank you for that.”

“What was that?” Harry demanded. “What was in that?”

“That–” Delphi coughed a couple of times, “that was a little thing I like to carry because–”

She broke off coughing again, bringing her hand up to her mouth. When she finished, she brought her hand up to show Harry. Blood coated her palm, dripping down onto the bedsheets. 

“Poison…” Harry breathed.

“I told you it would help both of us.”

“What if I got a Healer in here?”

“There isn’t a – a lot of point.”

Harry didn’t say anything.

“Yew – yew berries…so there’s no cure. Just mixed with a pain potion to stop it hurting…and it makes it faster…blood’s just a side effect…”

She slid off the bed, leaning against the wall and smiling bitterly. She kept coughing, the blood spraying across the room.

“This was always your plan if you lost, wasn’t it?”

Delphi coughed violently, and then she stopped herself, looking at him. “This was always my plan. But now…yeah…slightly different idea. Go out with a bang. Maybe make you realise that you need to do more to look after all victims of war. Not just the ones you’re emotionally attached to.”

“You murdered a child.”

“The Rowles nearly did too. At least you noticed that kid I killed.”

“Do you regret it?”

“I’ve always felt safer when surrounded by chaos,” Delphi doubled over slightly with coughing. “Maybe that’s why I found myself creating it.”

Harry was about to ask her another question, but she slumped forward her chest no longer rising with breaths.

It was over.

**Author's Note:**

> So thank you to @SprksPatronus49 on twitter for tweeting about the contents of Delphi's bag. Too many ideas. Too much darkness. But here we are.   
> Thanks for reading  
> Kudos and comments much appreciated  
> Twitter: @evie_adams273


End file.
